New Rider advice - options available

[darthpunk]

I couldn't find a relevant place to post this other than maybe staying alive, but I'll give it a shot here

I have a few options available to me to finally get my backside on a bike seat. So far I have completed a CBT and Theory test back in October 2021. Due to cash/home improvements/state of mind I've done nothing else since. Now I'm (almost) ready to grab the bull by the horns. I go on holiday at the beginning of July and I promised the wife I wouldn't do anything till we had gone and come back.

so, my options are:

A: Get on with the training, do a DAS of some description at the same place I did the CBT and complete the A1 and A2 licenses before October so I don't have to go through the hell of the theory again.

B: Buy a 125, i'm a biggish fella so I've looked at the KTM Duke/Husky Whateveritscalled, Honda and Yamahas as they all seem to be bigger now than the typical CBF's and newer Mash bikes, ride around for a year or two on one of those and get the chance to practice the craft (u turns and all that). If I was buying then the place that sells all these bikes locally throw in a CBT, i'd just have to do the theory again later down the line.

It's not all about not wanting to do the theory again, that would just be stupid, it's more about does it make sense to buy a 125 or not.

If It helps, i'm 47 years old with a chronic inability to make a decision

[Horse]

I'm a bit out of touch with 'L' stuff, so:

@Bigyin
@The Spin Doctor

[Rockburner]

Presumably you can do the A1/A2 on loaned bikes?

If so, get the 125, practise practise practise, and after you've done the A1/A2, stay on the 125, practising the stuff you learnt on A1/A2 training until you feel ready to get something bigger. There's no law that says you need a bigger bike just because you've trained on one.

[Supermofo]

Even more than stuff like U turns there is no substitute for riding to gain experience. Ride as much as possible so that the actual bike riding part becomes second nature. Do practice the life savers/Hendon shuffle so it's all totally normal for you and then that part won't require active thought.

[Cousin Jack]

I am NOT a trainer, so feel free to ignore this.

My advice would be to go the DAS route, and buy a used 500 or 650 when you have passed DAS. Running a 125 will get you into bad habbits, and then you will need to unlearn them again.

Dont buy your dream bike as a first bike, you will drop it. Dont think you need a 1000 cc as a first bike, you dont, a 500 will be fast enough to scare you.

As I said, I am not a trainer, but that is my twopenneth.

[The Spin Doctor]

My advice would be to go the DAS route, and buy a used 500 or 650 when you have passed DAS. Running a 125 will get you into bad habbits, and then you will need to unlearn them again.

^ what he said...

I've hung up my basic training helmet but still run advanced courses, and I'd agree - most of the riders who 'picked up experience' on a 125 between CBT and coming back to do DAS training had picked up bad habits they needed to be trained out of again. It was nearly always easier to take someone straight from CBT and no home-baked and often half-baked ideas of how they should be riding.

Plus doing something like a U-turn on a 125 is a doddle. It's a different order of difficulty on a DAS bike weight twice as much.

[Supermofo]

Last time I did a feet up U turn on a bike Nope, no idea.

[Dodgy69]

Get it done soon as... forum trackday in August.

[MrLongbeard]

Last time I did a feet up U turn on a bike Nope, no idea.

Yesterday, in shorts & slippers, without a helmet, needed to get a feel for the gear change on the wife's metric cruiser (bloody horrible).
But before that, nope not a clue

[Count Steer]

Eh? Doing a feet-up u-ey is a matter of pride!

I remember booking a test ride on a Burgervan and someone that I hadn't met previously from the boards (Phooey) said he'd come along for a bit of a spin out. He arrived and did a feet up on a sixpence on a decent sized bike in front of Steve Jordan's. I looked at the Mrs, she looked at me. I said 'He's 'job''*.

That set the benchmark and I wouldn't be happy until I had that level of bike control...nearly got there.

* I was right.

[Bigyin]

I couldn't find a relevant place to post this other than maybe staying alive, but I'll give it a shot here

I have a few options available to me to finally get my backside on a bike seat. So far I have completed a CBT and Theory test back in October 2021. Due to cash/home improvements/state of mind I've done nothing else since. Now I'm (almost) ready to grab the bull by the horns. I go on holiday at the beginning of July and I promised the wife I wouldn't do anything till we had gone and come back.

so, my options are:

A: Get on with the training, do a DAS of some description at the same place I did the CBT and complete the A1 and A2 licenses before October so I don't have to go through the hell of the theory again.

B: Buy a 125, i'm a biggish fella so I've looked at the KTM Duke/Husky Whateveritscalled, Honda and Yamahas as they all seem to be bigger now than the typical CBF's and newer Mash bikes, ride around for a year or two on one of those and get the chance to practice the craft (u turns and all that). If I was buying then the place that sells all these bikes locally throw in a CBT, i'd just have to do the theory again later down the line.

It's not all about not wanting to do the theory again, that would just be stupid, it's more about does it make sense to buy a 125 or not.

If It helps, i'm 47 years old with a chronic inability to make a decision

Looking at the above i would say option A is your best bet in doing a DAS course. Just to clarify you will be doing a course for an Category A license and nothing to do with A1 or A2. These are the lower license levels for younger riders on restricted power bikes. You will be doing yours on a 600 and on completion of the Mod1 (machine handling test) and Mod2 (practical riding) tests you will hold an unrestricted license to ride as big or small a bike as you want.

If you decide on option B sometimes bigger blokes struggle with the 125's a bit down to pure physical size and the biggest i am aware of is the Honda Varadero 125 but Yamaha have an XSR 125 now which is a reasonable size and a few of the Chinese/Korean brands have bikes that were originally 400cc but fitted with 125 engines like the Lexmoto LXR.

By the time you come off holiday you'll have 3-4 months left on your CBT and Theory so enough time to get through a DAS course.

However ....... depending on where in the UK you are might depend on the ease of getting the required tests as there are current problems due to DVSA examiners on strike action and redeployment of bike examiners to carry out car tests. For example normally there were locally 25 available MOD 1 tests a week between about 6 or 7 local schools. Last week there were 10 available so the schools got 1 each allocated instead of the 4 or 5 most normally get, This has added weeks onto people trying to get through the procedure and if someone happens to fail their first attempt they used to get a retest the following week easily, its now a month wait until the DVSA get their act together again.

Contact the bike school, pop in and see what their current situation is and maybe book some sort of "taster" session on a bigger bike to see how you feel if they provide that sort of thing

[Yorick]

I couldn't find a relevant place to post this other than maybe staying alive, but I'll give it a shot here

I have a few options available to me to finally get my backside on a bike seat. So far I have completed a CBT and Theory test back in October 2021. Due to cash/home improvements/state of mind I've done nothing else since. Now I'm (almost) ready to grab the bull by the horns. I go on holiday at the beginning of July and I promised the wife I wouldn't do anything till we had gone and come back.

so, my options are:

A: Get on with the training, do a DAS of some description at the same place I did the CBT and complete the A1 and A2 licenses before October so I don't have to go through the hell of the theory again.

B: Buy a 125, i'm a biggish fella so I've looked at the KTM Duke/Husky Whateveritscalled, Honda and Yamahas as they all seem to be bigger now than the typical CBF's and newer Mash bikes, ride around for a year or two on one of those and get the chance to practice the craft (u turns and all that). If I was buying then the place that sells all these bikes locally throw in a CBT, i'd just have to do the theory again later down the line.

It's not all about not wanting to do the theory again, that would just be stupid, it's more about does it make sense to buy a 125 or not.

If It helps, i'm 47 years old with a chronic inability to make a decision

Looking at the above i would say option A is your best bet in doing a DAS course. Just to clarify you will be doing a course for an Category A license and nothing to do with A1 or A2. These are the lower license levels for younger riders on restricted power bikes. You will be doing yours on a 600 and on completion of the Mod1 (machine handling test) and Mod2 (practical riding) tests you will hold an unrestricted license to ride as big or small a bike as you want.

If you decide on option B sometimes bigger blokes struggle with the 125's a bit down to pure physical size and the biggest i am aware of is the Honda Varadero 125 but Yamaha have an XSR 125 now which is a reasonable size and a few of the Chinese/Korean brands have bikes that were originally 400cc but fitted with 125 engines like the Lexmoto LXR.

By the time you come off holiday you'll have 3-4 months left on your CBT and Theory so enough time to get through a DAS course.

However ....... depending on where in the UK you are might depend on the ease of getting the required tests as there are current problems due to DVSA examiners on strike action and redeployment of bike examiners to carry out car tests. For example normally there were locally 25 available MOD 1 tests a week between about 6 or 7 local schools. Last week there were 10 available so the schools got 1 each allocated instead of the 4 or 5 most normally get, This has added weeks onto people trying to get through the procedure and if someone happens to fail their first attempt they used to get a retest the following week easily, its now a month wait until the DVSA get their act together again.

Contact the bike school, pop in and see what their current situation is and maybe book some sort of "taster" session on a bigger bike to see how you feel if they provide that sort of thing

The big ugly fella does talk some sense

[Horse]

there is no substitute for riding to gain experience.

Tosh and nonsense

Good training gives people a short-cut to experience.

And it's far less painful to learn from others' mistakes

[Horse]

Last time I did a feet up U turn on a bike Nope, no idea.

It's not 'doing a U turn' that's the important outcome, it's being able to ride easily through hairpin bends, mini-roundabouts, tight junctions, feet up filtering, parking spaces, etc.

[Supermofo]

there is no substitute for riding to gain experience.

Tosh and nonsense

Good training gives people a short-cut to experience.

And it's far less painful to learn from others' mistakes

Yeah and no. Training has its place, but all the best trainers have spent 100,000s of miles riding to get that good. Whilst they can impart some of their knowledge imo there is nothing like saddle time yourself. So it's both.

[Horse]

Training has its place, ... Whilst [trainers] can impart some of their knowledge imo there is nothing like saddle time yourself. So it's both.

Which bits do you think training is beneficial for, and which bits riding experience?

[Supermofo]

Training has its place, ... Whilst [trainers] can impart some of their knowledge imo there is nothing like saddle time yourself. So it's both.

Which bits do you think training is beneficial for, and which bits riding experience?

Not being rude, got some stuff to do at work and I said in IMO. Which I stand by, if you think I'm wrong then fair enough.

[Horse]

Training has its place, ... Whilst [trainers] can impart some of their knowledge imo there is nothing like saddle time yourself. So it's both.

Which bits do you think training is beneficial for, and which bits riding experience?

Not being rude, got some stuff to do at work and I said in IMO. Which I stand by, if you think I'm wrong then fair enough.

Actually, I think you're partly right., and it's your opinion that's important.

Not all training = good

[The Spin Doctor]

Let's just remind ourselves... 'practice makes PERMANENT, so it's necessary to practice the PERFECT'.

In other words, we have to know what we're doing in the first place, before we can trying nailing it down as a 'skill' by going out and repeating it.

Can we learn decent riding technique by trial and error? The answer to that is 'maybe'. If you have enough insight to spot an issue then figure out how to fix it, then that'll work. It's how I learned. But I've still got the scars resulting from the errors that told me there was a better way to do something. Otherwise, you'll simply go on doing the same thing badly.

And some people simply never, ever realise that they ARE doing things badly...

...maybe right up to the point where things go badly wrong. Just look at crash stats... we're still having the exact same crashes our grandparents did on bikes... just faster.

[ZRX61]

Last time I did a feet up U turn on a bike Nope, no idea.

It's not 'doing a U turn' that's the important outcome, it's being able to ride easily through hairpin bends, mini-roundabouts, tight junctions, feet up filtering, parking spaces, etc.

Back when LAPD had KZ1000's they'd do circles with their feet up while dragging the footboard